Olympiacos shuts down host Barcelona

Olympiacos Piraeus relied on defense to pull out an important road win by downing FC Barcelona Lassa 60-69 on Tuesday at Palau Blaugrana. This marked the fifth win in six matches for the Reds, who improved to an 8-5 record to remain in the fifth place in the standings. Olympiacos led the entire second half and never allowed more than 18 points in a quarter to Barcelona. Big man Nikola Milutinov shined with 18 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Vassilis Spanoulis netted 14 points on 4-for-9 shooting from three-point range, while Nigel Williams Goss and Zach LeDay scored 10 apiece in victory. Meanwhile, Barcelona lost its fourth straight game to drop to 6-7 as Victor Claver had 13 points and Pierre Oriola added 10.

Claver hit a pair of triples early for the hosts, but Spanoulis matched him, putting Olympiacos up 8-10. Artem Pustovyi scored a pair of put-back baskets for Barcelona, but 6 points from Milutinov and a triple from Williams-Goss put the visitors up 14-17 after a quarter. Defenses continued to dominate on both ends until LeDay hit a pair of close-range baskets, one of which came with a free throw, to make it 18-22- Adam Hanga answered with a triple and Kevin Pangos followed him to get Barcelona within 26-25. Kostas Papanikolaou had a three-pointer on the other end as the visitors took a 30-32 advantage into halftime. Spanoulis and Papanikolaou hit triples to make it 30-38 soon after the break, and Milutinov continued tormenting the hosts on the offensive glass, extend the margin to 33-43. Hanga and Thomas Heurtel got Barcelona going, but another three from Spanoulis helped make it 41-54. Kyle Kuric knocked down a three-ball for the hosts before baskets from Heurtel and Oriola, at the buzzer, cut the difference to 48-55 after 30 minutes. Williams-Goss restored a double-digit margin with a three-pointer to start the fourth quarter. The teams proceeded to trade two-point baskets as Oriola scored 6 points for the hosts. But LeDay, Milutinov and Spanoulis keeping the margin safe at 54-65, and Barcelona never threatened again.

Defensive ways

Olympiacos struggled offensively, dishing just 12 assists while committing 15 turnovers. But the Reds played stellar defense and used it to win the game. After going up 54-65 with 6:13 left in the fourth quarter, Olympiacos was left scoreless for more than 4 minutes, but also allowed Barcelona just a single basket in that span and just 6 points in the final 7 minutes.

Pivotal performer

Nikola Milutinov had a career-performance at Palau Blaugrana. The big man scored 18 points on 5-for-8 two-point shooting, but also had career highs with 14 total rebounds and 7 on the offensive glass. Milutinov also had 2 blocks to register his career-high PIR of 36.

Stellar stat

Olympiacos set a new season high by pulling down 21 offensive rebounds. It is also second-highest mark in club history, 2 shy of a club record. Five different players had multiple offensive rebounds against Barcelona, led by 7 from Milutinov.

Hidden stat

Barcelona shot 6-for-15 from three-point range through the first three quarters, then failed to even take another three-point attempt in the opening 6 minutes of the fourth. The hosts finished the night 6-for-20 behind the arc.

Next game

On Thursday, Olympiacos will be returning home to host Herbalife Gran Canaria, while Barcelona travels to faces a fellow Spanish rival KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Head Coaches

PESIC, SVETISLAV

FC Barcelona Lassa

"Congratulations to Olympiacos for this game. They showed one very physical game. Both teams played very good defense. I think that the difference was rebounding. We were very bad in that stats category. Olympiacos had 22 defensive rebounds and 21 on offense. That was the difference in the game."

BLATT, DAVID

Olympiacos Piraeus

"I am very happy. Obviously we played a great defensive game. A lot of credit to my associate head coaches, they prepared the team in the best possible way and then the guys went out and executed the game plan defensively. I think we can certainly do a better job of putting the ball in the basket than we did today. We missed a lot of open looks, but more importantly, from an offensive standpoint, we just turned the ball over foolishly. If you don't get enough shots at the rim you are not going to score a lot of points."

Players

MILUTINOV, NIKOLA

Olympiacos Piraeus

"For sure we are happy. It was really difficult, but we played like a team, we played a great 40 minutes. In the end, I think we deserved this win. No matter how I play, I am always happy when we win."

WILLIAMS-GOSS, NIGEL

Olympiacos Piraeus

"It was a great effort by the entire team. I thought we came out aggressive from the start. Coach had us really stick to our game plan. I think we executed real well. These are all important games, especially with the playoff race so close. We just want to take it one game at the time, and each and every game play aggressive for 40 minutes."